Slowly and surely

Work on the shawl continues. I am making progress, and I can feel that I'm making progress, but it doesn't show very well in photos; more of the same, is more like it.
Does it look any bigger? It is, honestly. I'm now done with seven repeats, and into the eighth, so I'm getting there. I knitted at it a bit at a time today, in between loads of laundry (ah, the joy of Sundays at home). Here's the body and the edging closer up.
Patterns like this really suck me in. In 24 rows, the bigger motif repeats twice, and the smaller three times, and 24 rows feels like a really approachable number, especially as I've split them into four row sections on my chart with pencil lines. So I knit one RS row, and then of course, I have to knit the corresponding WS row, and then I notice that I'm only two more rows away from finishing a 4-row section, so I get those next two done, and then hey, look how far I've come, better do one more RS row and then... Well, you get the picture. Apparently I'm easily amused.

I've also been spinning this week, working on the Linguistic roving that Rabbitch dyed for me. Sitting down at the wheel for short periods of time is starting to feel easier, as it no longer takes quite so long for me to settle in.
What do you think? Aren't the colors amazing? They really are that vibrant, and there's an amazing royal blue in there, too, that you can't see so well in this shot. I'll be spinning another bobbin full with the second half of the roving, and then plying them together. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

In other news, it would appear that it's a good rattlesnake year here. In all the years I've lived and hiked in California (that would be my whole life, now I come to think of it), I have only ever seen two rattlesnakes, one in Simi Valley, and one in Big Sur. On Friday, I doubled that number. Rick and I took the dogs hiking while the girls had their piano lesson, and we saw two big fat rattlers on the trail. Neither of them could be bothered to even rattle at us, although their rattles were clearly visible, as were the diamonds on their backs, and their triangle-shaped heads. Tilly almost stepped on the first one, which was coiled up on the side of the trail (all 3 1/2 feet of him), and Rick saw the second across the trail before we got too close. Luckily, Kia has never been much of a dog for chasing wildlife, and Tilly didn't seem interested, but we're seriously thinking of enrolling in one of those rattlesnake-avoidance classes as part of her training. Laura pointed out yesterday that it's a big rabbit year, which usually means a rise in rattlesnakes and coyotes, and both of those snakes looked fat and well-fed, so I think we'll need to start being even more careful than we usually are.

Tonight, Rick and I get to go out for dinner -- a date! We're off very soon; an evening out the two of us is a rare and precious commodity, so I'm looking forward to it. And then on to the last week of classes before finals. Almost there...